RUNet 2000 funds to aid health-care
technology
by Teresa T. Liao
Targum Staff Writer
Published in the
The Daily Targum
of November 30, 1998
With the allocation of $2.5 million in federal funds, RUNet
2000 will help research on joint and hand injuries, state and
federal officials announced Tuesday.
A virtual reality glove - designed by the
College of Engineering . . .1- was demonstrated by
Grigore Burdea, an associate professor of
electrical engineering, to Reps. Rodney
Frelinghuysen, R-Harding, and Frank
Pallone Jr., D-Long Branch, and Sens.
Frank Lautenberg, D-Cliffside Park, and
Robert Torricelli, D-Englewood, at the
Computing Research and Education
Building on the Busch campus.
The virtual reality glove is part of a
telerehabilitation system that will help
patients recover from hand and joint
injuries, Burdea said. The glove, which
displays individual fingers on a monitor,
measures hand movements and records
the data in real time.
Technology will continue to improve the telerehabilitation
system, Burdea said. . . .1
This week the virtual reality system will be sent to Stanford
University in California, where patients will try the
telerehabilitation, Burdea said.
"New Jersey has earned the title of The Invention State,"
Lautenberg said.
With the help of RUNet 2000, patients will be able to undergo
physical therapy from their homes and therapists
simultaneously will be able to monitor many patients, Burdea
said.
RUNet 2000 - a comprehensive voice, video and data
communications network that will link all University facilities
under one communications network - was approved by the
Board of Governors this summer. The project will cost $97
million over four years.
"This is such an exciting moment in Rutgers University
history," University president Francis L. Lawrence said. "This
is just the tip of the iceberg."
RUNet 2000 will connect the University to research labs and
classrooms across the state. Internet2 will connect the
University to the rest of the world. Internet2 is a
high-bandwidth network similar to the Internet but with access
limited to research institutions.
"We are going to take Rutgers University from an asset to
students and teachers to become an asset to people all over New
Jersey," Torricelli said.
The University is not alone in this project, Michael McKay,
director of telecommunications, said.
"Collaboration is the essence of this project," he said.
Rutgers-New Brunswick, Rutgers-Newark, the New Jersey
Institute of Technology and Stanford all are working on the
project, McKay said.
"The fact that Democrats and Republicans can come together
shows that we all understand the potential of this technology,"
Torricelli said.
The $2.5 million "represents a down payment of a future
investment of federal assets," Frelinghuysen said.
"This is important not only for all Rutgers campuses, but also
for the state and perhaps even the nation," Pallone said.
1 An inaccurate statement was removed